Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract/Objectives

This article examines platform-based food delivery workers (couriers) in an East Asian context and explores three key questions concerning workplace dignity: how couriers define it, whether and how it has been undermined, and how they expect companies to maintain it. Couriers’ definition of workplace dignity aligns with the concepts of either inherent or earned dignity, both of which have been compromised by various sources and mechanisms. Platform companies challenge workplace dignity in an intersectional way, demonstrating that their management practices undermine both the inherent and earned dignity of couriers. Couriers develop transactional and relational contracts with platform companies, expecting fair pay, protection, voice mechanisms, and skill development opportunities, all of which they view as essential to preserving or enhancing workplace dignity.

Results/Contributions

The workplace dignity of platform workers has become an increasingly critical issue as the platform economy continues to expand. This study examines how food delivery couriers in Taiwan define workplace dignity, whether and how it has been undermined, and how they expect platform companies to protect it. This study contributes to the literature on workplace dignity, platform work, and psychological contracts in three main ways.

First, I focused on workers’ perspectives to investigate how they define workplace

dignity, in line with Lucas’s advocacy that researchers should explore workers’ understandings, interpretations, and judgments of workplace dignity instead of using the concept as a benchmark to evaluate harmful workplace practices (Lucas, 2017; Thomas and Lucas, 2019). Second, this study is among the first to examine the workplace dignity of platform workers, a distinctive work organization that relies on algorithmic management. I document whether and how food delivery couriers experienced threats to their workplace dignity. In the context of platform work, this study demonstrates the intersectional way in which platform companies challenge workplace dignity, making it one of the few studies to examine this concept from an intersectional perspective. Third, I examine the psychological contract that couriers form with platform companies—an aspect largely overlooked in the literature on workplace dignity and platform work. This study also advances understanding of platform workers from a psychological perspective. While some scholars argue that platform workers’ psychological contracts are predominantly transactional (Cropanzano et al., 2023), my findings align with Martindale et al.’s (2024) relational inducements also exist. This may help explain the prevalence of protests organized by platform workers worldwide (Umney et al., 2024), as platform workers have demanded not only reasonable pay and comprehensive benefits

but also effective voice mechanisms. 

Keywords

food deliveryplatform workpsychological contractTaiwanworkplace dignity

Contact Information

李柏毅
bylee@mx.nthu.edu.tw